THE COLE-TIT. 397 



manner as mice nestle; but not in their holes, because young 

 pine plantations upon erewhile moors being but bare pastures 

 for murine quadrupeds of any sort, there are not many mice 

 in them. The nest is in the close shrubby vegetation near 

 the ground, formed externally of moss and wool, and lined 

 with hair. Where there is no cover of underwood, it, of 

 course, must build in other places ; and, as it always hides its 

 nest, the holes of walls and of trees are, no doubt, the best 

 and readiest places that it can find. The eggs in a hatch 

 vary from four to ten; they are of a purer white than those 

 of the great tit, but mottled in the same manner. 



The birds come less frequently near houses than the former 

 species, and when they do they are not so shy, though they 

 are to the full as quick and lively in their motions. Their 

 food is not quite so well known; but their bills are so well 

 adapted for digging into the fissures of bark (and these appear 

 very early on pines towards the roots), and their air and 

 expression so much resemble those of the fly-catchers, that 

 insects and larvae must form their chief food in the summer, 

 and probably they dig out the larvae that burrow in the 

 bark in winter. 



The cole-tit is a very small bird, the length being not 

 quite four inches and a half, and the weight little more than 

 half an ounce. The wings stretch seven inches. The bill, 

 head, and neck, with the exception of the patches of white on 

 the cheeks and neck, are deep glossy black. The upper part 

 of the breast, and the shoulders in a line bordering the black, 

 are white, passing into yellowish-white in the lower part, 

 and deepening in the yellow tint, and tinged with grey 

 towards the rump. Back and scapulars (from the white 

 margin) greenish-grey, wing coverts bluish-grey, with pale 

 ash-coloured tips to the feathers forming two bars on the 

 wing. The colour of the back passing gradually into a 

 yellowish-grey on the rump. Quills and tail feathers ash 



